Monthly Archives: May 2008

“If you look at some of the best, most inspirational practitioners in our field you’ll see that they think of their work, not as a job, but as a calling. They see the impact of technology on people’s lives as important. They feel that good design makes the world a better place — and that bad design can make life miserable… So my advice is: find your passion, pursue it and your career will take care of itself.” – David Travis

As someone relatively new to this field, this quote really spoke to me, and is probably my favorite out of all that I have posted so far. No matter what field you’re in, passion is extremely important.

Read an interview with David Travis on the User Experience Network here.

“A truly great design is innovative and revolutionary. It’s built on a fresh idea that breaks all previous rules and assumptions but is so elegant it appears simple and natural once it has been created.” – David Ngo

“Businesses have now come to recognize that providing a quality user experience is an essential, sustainable competitive advantage. It is user experience that forms the customer’s impression of the company’s offerings, it is user experience that differentiates the company from its competitors, and it is user experience that determines whether your customer will ever come back.” – The Elements of User Experience by Jesse James Garrett

“What exactly does it mean to be a compassionate designer? It means doing things that help us not only understand, but relate to the users we design for. To feel for them. To put ourselves in their shoes, even if our own lives are totally opposite from them. Sound simple? It is. You just have to do it.” – David Armano

“The designer… has a passion for doing something that fits somebody’s needs, but that is not just a simple fix. The designer has a dream that goes beyond what exists, rather than fixing what exists… the designer wants to create a solution that fits in a deeper situational or social sense.” – David Kelley, Founder of IDEO, in Bringing Design to Software by Terry Winograd

Purchase Bringing Design to Softwarehere or check out an interview with David Kelley for some interesting insights on design.

“Creation is nothing but the reconstitution of existing parts. The components are the same, the combination is new. Become aware of as much of the world as possible. This will form your palette of components. It is up to you to put them in their place.” – Mike Padilla

Mike, a User Experience Design Manager at Vanguard, has some great articles up on Digital Web Magazine. You can also view his personal website here.